The annual release of approximately 60 million pheasants and partridges for shooting in the UK raises significant welfare questions about production conditions, mortality rates, and impacts on native wildlife.
Game bird rearing and release raises welfare concerns across the production cycle. Intensive game farm conditions involve high stocking densities with associated stress and injury. Released birds raised in enclosed conditions face survival challenges they are poorly equipped for, resulting in high mortality from predation, accidents, and starvation before shooting season. Birds shot but not cleanly killed suffer before dying. The scale of release - 60 million birds annually - means the total welfare impact is substantial even if individual bird welfare is considered acceptable.